Not a drop

—copied from NEDoD—

Water water everywhere...

Some of you asked for a report of my adventures in getting hometonight. Short version, I'm home and only a little damp.

So we got rain, right? Apparently, I live in a high spot because thearea around my house is totally dry. But I guess not everywhere elseis so lucky. On the way to MM tonight, I came to big barricades andflashing lights saying that 117 was closed. This piqued my curiousity.I decided to take 117 from the other direction heading back.

Riding on a closed road is *fun*. No flicking the high beams off andon, no being blinded by oncoming traffic. There's just the specter ofwater on the road around every bend, but hey. There was barely anywater on the road until exactly where I thought the trouble would be.There were cops posted at the intersection of 117 and Sudbury Rd. inConcord, and sure enough, the road in front of Brigham's Farm Standwas washed out. Well, washed out is putting it mildly. As I waslooking for a rock to throw to check the depth, I saw something swimacross the road. Because it was dark, I decided it was not worthcrossing where I couldn't see, so I turned around.

I followed Sudbury Rd. north towards Rt. 2 until I came to more ROADCLOSED signs. I proceeded cautiously until I found myself surroundedon three sides by water. It's very eerie, being on a narrow road withwater on either side, knowing there's water ahead of you somewhere.You know the water by the inky stillness that's blacker than thesurrounding darkness. I came up to the edge of the water and got offthe bike again. This time, I could see the double-yellow line most ofthe way across. It looked like it got gradually deeper, but keptgetting deeper way past the halfway point. But what the hell. I have aKLR, so I said fuckit, let's do this.

Suddenly, the blackness was split by a brilliant spray as theheadlight caught all the water I was kicking up. I couldn't see howdeep it was, but I knew it was getting deeper. And deeper. And deeper.And still deeper. Then, just when I thought it couldn't get anydeeper, it did. Finally, the road started sloping back up towards thebarricades. All I could see was the water coming up at me and theflashing lights on the far side, so I can't really say how deep itwas. But when I went to put my feet back down, my left footpeg hadbeen folded up.

I made it to the far side, my bike throwing off steam like some kindof hell beast. Wow, does that ever make you feel like a bad ass; juststeam rising up and dancing in your headlight's glow. My 'stich and mySidi On Roads kept me pretty much dry. A little water went up the pantlegs, but it was nothing a little blow dry (judicious application ofthrottle) couldn't cure. I saw several other ROAD CLOSED signs, but Ifigured I'd wait for daylight to survey the damage. I still want to goback along 117 from the other direction and see just how wide the lakeis. I'll probably go out later this morning and follow the signs fromone road closing to another. I know there was flooding on Rt, 20 whereit crosses 126. I'd like to try to get some pictures of the variousroad-lakes of Massachusetts.